Friday, February 16, 2007

Visitors

An old friend, Fr. José Marins, repeated often “may the apostles be friends”. In this shared mission for China we have met old and new friends and together we are creating a network that multiplies our apostolic endeavors.

Fr. John Zhang. He is one of the most prestigious and influential priest in China. He is the director of Faith Press, the largest Catholic publishing house in China, and publishes three times a month a newspaper with more than 50,000 subscribers. This newspaper reaches all the parishes in China, and many places abroad. He also started Jinde Charities (.www.jinde.org) with a variety of social services. He is particularly interested in the spiritual formation of pastoral agents. Because of these he is well recognized in China and abroad.

Our relationship with Faith Press goes back several years ago when we offered them the translation and publication rights of our books into Chinese. We discussed the possibility of teaming up for new pastoral projects.

Fr. Dennis Rochford, msc. He comes to the Catholic University of Macau (IIUM) as Dean of Theological studies in preparation for the theological courses that IIUM wants to start this coming October, offering a systematic training for seminarians from China. Religious congregations are also expected to send their seminarians for a six year training. Since the very beginning of our arrival in Macau the Claretians have maintained a close contact with the university and plan to work together in this project.

Fr. Paul Chan Tsun Wai, SJ. This Jesuit priest specializes in spiritual formation mainly for priests and sisters in China. He has a full schedule of retreats the whole year long. He is also connected with several catechetical centers in China and after knowing our work and the books that we have published –some of them already in Chinese– he is very interested in teaming up with us.


Carol and Colin Tan.
Colin is a retired lawyer who taught at the diplomatic school in Beijing and now counts with several Chinese friends who are ambassadors in several countries. Carol, his wife, has worked for many years at Stanford University in USA. They live part of the year in Zhuhai, our neighbor city from Macau and they come for Sunday Mass. Once I mentioned that we were looking for a young Chinese web designer and a couple of days later I received an email telling me that some friends were visiting them and their son Zhao Yuan Yi. She writes: “Zhao Yuan Yi, is going to graduate from Guang Zhou Agriculture University in June this year. His major is Web Designer. He is an outstanding student with honor at the University. His designed Logos have won several awards. The last one was received from Taiwan University in 2006.” Sid and myself went across the border to meet them. Here they are:

We have already given some assignment to Zhao Yuan Yi and hopefully he will begin working with us after his graduation this June.

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